The Hero and the Hare
by Arkraith
Summary: The hateful and the hated. Disowned and Dishonored. Four super powered teenagers are brought together with the intention of changing the world, but are brought into a fight they didn't want to start, but are going to end it in order to save the world, and on the way, each other. Rated M for language and maybe blood. Some OCxOC. The story has evolved and so has the summary
1. Chapter 1

**Hello peoples. This is a RWBY fic (obviously) and... well... that's about it. I have invested a lot of time into making this story, even if i am barely finishing up chapter 2. Anyways, I hope this story meets your standards. Happy Reading!**

' _Fuck, this isn't as good an idea as I had thought it would be.'_ I thought as I landed on the next roof with an grunt. I sighed as I continued my run to the airship docks. Not a hurried run, just a sort of "I don't want to be stuck behind some asshole in line" kind of run.

I hope I packed enough for living in a dorm, don't want to be underprepared. I went through a mental checklist making sure I had everything I needed for at least a week. I thought about it ' _I can come back any weekend really so it's not a big deal if I did forget anything'._

It finally happened, I was accepted into Beacon Academy. After a month of anticipation they finally told me I had been accepted. That was two days ago. Today, I'm off to the campus. ' _Just wish they had told me sooner, whoever is in charge must be quite irresponsible...'_ I stopped to think about it for a few moments ' _Well they did accept me, so they know what they're doing.'_ I gave myself a shit-eating smirk for my narcissism

I was starting myself up for running again until I heard someone cry out what sounded like distress. ' _God damn it this better not be important, and if it is it better not make me late_ ' I walked over to the edge where I heard the cry come from to find a back alleyway with a deer faunus woman and what appeared to be her daughter, surrounded by a group of human looking ' _faunus hating_ ' thugs surrounding the two and cornering them at a dead end. I put my luggage down so that it wouldn't hold me down in case I got in a fight ' _Which would probably be the result if I intervened'_

From where I was I could hear them, see them, as well as watch the passing people who glanced at the scene before continuing on with their pathetic lives ' _Those fuckers watch as their own people are attacked! If they won't do something, I will!'_ Even the faunus passerby did nothing to help, presumably afraid of what would happen if they intervened, they had enough on their plate for just being a faunus, they didn't want to attract attention to themselves and make it worse…

Fear is powerful weapon

"-ave a great time. It would be fun, come on bab-" I interrupted one of the thugs by falling in between him and the faunus as he spewed some vulgar bullshit meant to calm her, it didn't work, it never works. No amount of sweet talking from a bad person ever makes what they do seem better, it only shows the victims how little regret and guilt the "bad people" truly have.

"You fuckers have to the count of-" A thug interrupted me mid sentence. My assumption being he couldn't see a weapon on me, thing is, I hid mine well, though I probably won't need it for a bunch of lowlifes like these not as-dumb-as-I-thought thugs. ' _So these thugs aren't a bunch of idiots with no brains'._ The thug came at me with an overhead slash that I easily avoided by side-stepping.

I kicked him hard in the side as he passed by me and sent him flying into a wall with an audible crack as he hit it, whether it was him or the wall that cracked, I don't know, nor do I care. I looked back at the group to see four left, with two of them charging me from different sides, while two stayed back. One of the thugs that stayed back pulled out a rifle of some sort and started firing at me.

I easily bobbed and weaved through the shots, decreasing the distance between me and the charging thugs rapidly. I quickly punched the thug on the left, stunning him before I ripped his bat-like weapon out of his grasp with my right arm and grabbing his arm with my left and flipped him forward causing him to land on his back. I saw the other thug come at me with a sideways strike.

I dropped the thug I was holding and spun around to deflect the strike, but before I could, my arm was hit with a shot from the rifleman causing me to miss the parry and took a direct shot to my side from the thug's bat. With my aura and their unempowered strength they did basically nothing.

I froze after the blow landed, and could see in the corner of my eye that the thugs thought they did something and smiled. Oh how wrong they were… oh so very wrong. Their smiles immediately disappeared when they saw a smirk form on my face. In a flash I brought the bat against the thugs jaw and quickly spun to do a golf-like strike against the thug on the ground, straight to his head.

With those two down all that was left was the thug armed with a rifle and the other thug that never engaged. I saw now he had pulled out a sword. Thinking faster than the rifleman, I threw the bat at breakneck speeds and it hit him directly in his head, knocking him unconscious immediately. The thug with the sword charged me and I grabbed a bat lying near one of the unconscious thugs to block it with. The sword got stuck in the bat and I quickly swung my leg into a sweeping strike to knock him off balance before driving my elbow into his gut

Finally with all the thugs taken out I was able to make sure that the faunus I had protected were okay, but when I looked back I saw that the mother was hugging her daughter, I turned to walk out of the alley ' _Lucky family...happy endings don't come very often in this world, enjoy it while you can.'_ As I left the alleyway I saw a black hooded figure hurry around a corner and out of sight. I didn't think too much about it at the time and decided to start heading to the docks again, but before I could I was hugged from behind. "Thank you for saving me and my sister" ' _Oh, I guess they're sisters_ '

I turned to her after she let go and looked her in the eyes with a genuine smile, while also noticing she was a good deal younger than I had thought "It was no problem I'm just happy to help" She smiled back and was about to turn back before I stopped her by grabbing her arm, both our smiles fading. "But, next time this happens I won't be here to save you" I looked her dead in the eyes "You need to learn to defend yourself" I let go of her and pulled out my scroll. "These are some places to get martial arts training as well as some weapon practice" I showed her some addresses in the city. "You would do best to write them down , in case you forget." She nodded even though I could tell she was confused.

After writing down the addresses on her own scroll she looked back at me "Thank you, again, but who are you, and why are you doing this?" ' _A fair question'_.

I looked her in the eyes and gave her my signature sudo-smile. A fake smile practiced to perfection, in which I give not a single hint that it's fake. "I'm a hunter-in-training, I did because it's the right thing" ' _Bullshit answer, that's what any other hunter would say. I did it because the assholes who attack their own people because of a few physical differences deserve to get their ass' kicked. I actually wouldn't have thought of it if she hadn't stopped me'_

I turned to walk away "I have an airship to Beacon Academy to catch" I looked at her ,now giving her my genuine smile "My name is Hiro Aeolus and i'd think it best if you payed attention to the news, 'cause you will be seeing me a lot there" I smiled and waved as I jogged away

I heard her yell "I will!" from behind me and I could feel the smile on her face as she said it. Hopefully she began to call the police… probably, she seemed like she had a good deal of IQ ' _At least there are some good people in this world'_.I looked at my scroll and exploded on the inside

I didn't want the woman I saved to think she made me late ' _Which she did'._ I may not like this world, but making friends has benefits, they help you, they support you, and they do nice things for you. I waited until I rounded the corner to run into a full sprint before using that momentum to leap onto a building to start my roof hopping routine, trying to go as fast as possible to get to the docks in time.

Running so much was beginning to take it's toll on me. My aura helps with stamina, but trying to jump from building to building for a half hour, then getting into a fight ' _Which I will admit, was more of a break than anything'_ then sprinting from building to building for 10 minutes isn't the easiest thing. I saw the airship in the distance, which was a relief, knowing that I wasn't late.

I got there as the last person was getting on the airship and hurried into it ' _At least I wasn't stuck behind some asshole' ._ I chuckled to myself at my lame attempt at humor. Observing the people around me I came to a realization… I'm surrounded by a bunch of annoying teenagers, in fact, the only people on the ship who looked like they wouldn't bother me as much of the others was a girl wearing all black clothing and had a black bow on her head who was just sitting down and reading and… The same black hooded figure from the streets was near the front looking out at what was in front of us. I couldn't really tell what sex the person what but they had a feminine look. ' _I'll just leave it as a "her" for now'_. 'She' had a black hoodie on and was wearing black jeans , and, unlike teens these days, weren't skinny jeans. There looked to be some kind of long, thick hilt on her back, though I couldn't tell what kind of weapon it was for.

This person intrigues me ' _Who is this person? Why were they running away when I left the alley? Why is 'she' wearing such covering clothing? Is she trying to hide something?_ '. Thoughts were running wild in my head and I had no idea why. Maybe I was just tired

Heading over to the least populated part of the airship, I decided to lay against the wall and get some rest. Finding a comfortable position I began to close my eyes trying to get some rest for the little time I would be on this ship. I, however, did notice the hooded figure turn to watch me from 'her' position near the front, probably thinking I was asleep. 'She' watched me carefully, yet 'her' body language said 'she' was a little nervous. ' _Ugh, my brain doesn't have the capacity to think so hard at the moment'._ Instead of thinking about the hooded figure I decided to fully close my eyes and let myself drift off to sleep.

 **I hope you enjoyed chapter 1. I'm not gonna be modest and say "Oh it's not much" because I have put a hell of a lot of work into this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you plan on reading the next.**

 **Trivia#1 I am not very good at author's notes, there's always stuff I want to say but can never remember when actually writing it.**

 **Have a wonderful day**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again, it's good to see some of you have actually made it to chapter 2 (If anyone is actually reading this, that is). I've decided to try and upload every Thursday, but even that's a stretch for me. I'm relatively knew to writing and I often have trouble identifying my own mistakes, so if you ever send any, please tell me, or not, because someone else will. Unless every person who reads this actually doesn't tell me, then i guess no one will tell me, so you should. Unless...**

My rest was interrupted when we were signaled that we were almost to Beacon Academy. I drew a long drawn out sigh ' _I can't remember my dream, but I know it was nice, now I'm back in the real shit hole we call life'_. I grunted as I stood up from my slightly comfortable position on the ground and dusted the parts of myself that were touching the floor. I looked around the room again and noticed that the hooded figure had lost interest in me sleeping ' _or turned away when 'she' saw me stir'_. I also noticed that someone had thrown up on the ride over, evident by the pile on the floor and some blond girl trying to find a way to get it off her shoes without touching it.

There was an announcement saying that we had finally arrived at Beacon I did some stretches to loosen up my body. I might not have slept very long, but it sure felt like a night's sleep.

As people filed out of the airship, I noticed that the hooded figure stayed back,waiting. ' _Probably waiting for me to leave so 'she' can follow me'_ . As I got out of the airship I felt a nice breeze blow by. I walked a few feet before realizing something that created immense rage. "I FUCKING FORGOT MY SHIT!" I screamed to the world. It came crashing down on me that I put my stuff down before engaging with the thugs. ' _Those fucking shit-brained_ _assholes! No fucking reason other than it being common to hate faunus'_. As I walked down the pathway , others, as well as myself, could feel a dark aura emanating from me. We all knew the first thing that upset me, would feel pain… and lots of it.

Apparently some dick wearing a hell of a lot of armor and a mace on his back didn't get the idea. As he passed some normal looking dude he pushed him out of the way with the excuse "Oh sorry _pal_ didn't see you there". ' _Oh no, I'm not having this experience ruined by some asshole who thinks he's the shit'._ I sped up my walking and as I passed him I drove my fist into his face ,knocking him to the ground.

"Oh sorry **pal** , didn't see you there" His face flashed something of anger, but before he could do anything, I quickly kicked him across his skull, knocking him out cold. ' _There's enough hatred unleashed in this world, I don't need it here, no one does'_

Feeling I vented my anger enough, I let myself calm down. Then, feeling it being about time I confronted my secret admirer, I pulled a one-eighty ' _and look at that, 'she' is directly behind me… well, in front of me now…'_. Obviously, not expecting me to do something like that, the hooded figure looked a little panicked before trying to play it cool by continuing 'her' walk, albeit, stiffer. As we passed each other, I grabbed 'her' by the back of the hoodie and pulled 'her' along with me. When 'her' momentum was reversed, an interesting "Eep!" came out, confirming her identity as a girl

I stopped a ways away from the flow of people heading to the assembly we were supposed to go to. The assembly information was in the message sent to me saying I was accepted. I flipped around both of us so that we were looking each other in the eyes… or eye. The first thing I noticed about the girl was her eye patch on her left eye. I carefully looked over all her features while leaning forward with an intense glare, while she was blushing an extreme red, mind you.

The girl had a bright emerald eye and medium length silky black hair, both of these features blended nicely with her tan skin. Her facial characteristics overall were pretty cute ' _Though I won't give her any indication I think so, i'm in a position of power, I won't ruin it by blushing or averting my eyes'_. I looked over the rest of her body, noting it was a small frame , short and sleek ' _Probably an agile fighter'._ I looked back her eyes and noticed she had been following my gaze and, once again, we were looking each other in the eyes… and eye.

I leaned back so that I was standing straight again. She let out a ragged breath. There was a silence for a few seconds and just as it seemed she was about to speak up, I spoke. "We should probably get to the assembly". She gave a slight nod to indicate she heard and agreed with me. We walked side by side heading to the assembly room. On the way we passed a curious sight of what looked to be some girl in a white dress scolding some girl in a red dress. The interesting part is that it looked as though the two had just exploded! I looked back forward to look where I was walking so that I wouldn't run into anything. ' _What the actual fu_ -'. My train of thought was interrupted when something heavy slammed into my side knocking me down onto my front, as well as the thing that hit me was on me.

' _Yeah, haha, very funny, universe. Your irony is hysterical'._ I groaned as I tried, and failed, to get up. "Erm… would you like some...uh… help?" Said a very quiet and gentle voice. ' _Is that….?'_. Taking my guess at who the new voice was, I slowly turned my head to the right to have my guess correct , when I saw the hooded figure crouching low next to me.

I slowly responded "...Yes…" ' _Oh, no thanks , I'd much rather have this...person? … on me?'_. It was then I realized that what hit me was a person and they were trying to get off me.

Now with the hooded figure's help , I was able to push the person off of me. I quickly stood up, brushing myself off while investigating the body that had hit me, only to find a dazed girl with shiny steel looking armor covering everything other than her head. After looking over her armor , my eyes fell on her head where I saw she had thick blond hair tied into a long ponytail it was only after a moment when she finally regained her senses with a shake of her head, that I saw able to see her vibrantly colored blue eyes. I could tell she was toned even through the armor, mostly because the armor required you to be. She had a very pretty face with almost no " _flaws_ ", probably because she's been pampered her whole life. I sighed outwardly ' _I don't think anything else could happen today to make this day any crazier...wait, now I've jinxed it ...fuck…'._

The female knight seemed to still be out of it, as she was having trouble getting up still. _'Is she even capable of wearing that armor efficiently?'._ Unable to watch the knight struggle any longer, the hooded figure decided to help her up. Now that the female knight was standing I could see her better. Noting she was heavily built like I thought, as well as being around my height at 6 feet. She glared at me "You would not help a Dame in distress, sir?"

I glared back with my steel blue eyes "Not a Dame careless enough to run into said sir." I retorted. She seemed flustered by my response "Ah, so it was you I happened to meet in unconventional conditions." I snickered at her use of words.

After a moment of awkward silence, "Sir, how about we start over, it is good to make allies early on in this endeavor.". ' _I suppose she's right, worth a shot'_ "Alright, i'll forgive you-" I leaned in close as I stared into her eyes "-this time". She seemed slightly shook at my weak attempt at intimidation, but seemed otherwise unfazed. She gave a small smile as she introduced herself. "Well, good sir, I am Dame Emilia Bennett of the Mistral Knights, A pleasure to meet your acquaintance". ' _I'd have to ask her why a knight of mistral is in a vale academy'_. She reached her hand out to shake mine. After a moment I shook it.

"Hiro Aeolus, I came from a small village out in the wilderness.". Before she had time to ask any questions, I turned to the hooded figure next to me.

"So… what's your deal, I'm pretty sure the assembly is just orientation, nothing we haven't heard, so we got time". She shuffled Oh her feet. "W-well, my name is... uh...". She looked at me, and seeing that I wasn't going to drop this anytime soon, steeled her resolve.

"My name is Annie Brayleigh and I was born in vacuo, I came here at a young age because my parents just wanted a change in life,-" She gave a small shrug, the kind of shrug that said " _whatever, let's move on"_. "-and so they came here". ' _I can tell there's more to it, but she probably didn't tell it all for a reason, like me, besides, that's not even what I was asking'._

I chuckled lightly. She looked confused towards my act. I looked her in the eye "Introductions are great and all, but I meant 'your deal' as in why you were stalking me. She seemed pretty damn embarrassed when I mentioned that. Emilia, however, was just watching with an eyebrow raised, probably content with just hearing this strangers excuse on why she was stalking another stranger. She shuffled on her feet a bit before clearing her throat.

"...W-well… i uh… i kind of…"

' _Ugh these shy types can be so cute and yet so frustrating at the same time_ '. I spoke up to " _encourage"_ her to talk "Well? Get on with it.". As I talked, I waved my hand in a circular motion of " _Wrap it up"._

Taking that as her queue to start, she mumbled something unintelligible. She looked at me as if seeing if that was enough. I just looked right back at her waiting for her to make the right move. After a few more moments in our unofficial staring contest she closed her eyes tightly and spoke. "I thought you were cool!". ' _...what did she say?'_ I was … well… flabbergasted, I had not expected this. In fact I had thought she might be lying.

"Please, explain…" I had told her with as much confusion as I felt. She responded quite timidly.

"Well… w-when I saw you uhm… protect those faunus from the thugs...I thought you were…". She trailed off and ended in mumbling. I gave her a questioning look and, because I'm not a faunus with super hearing, asked her to repeat herself. She covered her face with her hands and talked so fast I almost didn't catch what she said "Ithoughtyouweresuperbraveandawesomewhenyouprotectedthosefaunussoiwantedtoseeifyouwouldbeonateamwithme". When she was finished her face was as red as that one exploded red girl's cloak.

I thought about it for a moment, but only a moment. She was looking at me hopefully ' _Though she won't be for long'_. I looked her in the eye and gave my answer.

"No." was all that I said before heading off into the direction of the hall. I didn't have time to see her reaction, which was probably one of mild disappointment. ' _She's only known me for what… five minutes_? _So far she's shown that she would only be a liability'_. Before I could get very far I felt a hand on my shoulder tug to turn me around.

Instead of seeing Annie like I was expecting, I was met with the face of Emilia. Emilia's face was not a happy one. ' _Ah, fuck… can't I just get some relaxation in?'_. She looked my right in my eyes before speaking her mind "That was a very rude act for a man supposedly wanting to become a noble, have you no honor or… or-!" She couldn't seem to find the right words to berate me with. I decided to speak some of my own mind, and started off by jabbing her in the chest with my finger.

"Listen here _knight_ , I know you and your other tin-cans-for-friends are _all_ about honor, justice, and whatever other bullcrap you think makes you good people-". She seemed to be absolutely furious with my words, but before she could speak at all I jabbed her in the chest armor again.

"-but this is the real world, choosing teammates simply because they ask is what gets people killed out here, so that _honor_ , _glory,_ and _justice_ crap can go to hell. If you want to survive you need to have a team that you can count on, and that will win, and that has the actual attributes of a true hunter.". I was slightly embarrassed at my loss of proper grammar from my anger, but that didn't matter at the moment.

With Emilia stunned by my outburst I turned to Annie who had tears beginning to form in her wide eye. ' _These people don't know the half of what's out there_ , _they have no room to talk. I have experienced those monsters we call grimm with my own eyes, I know what they are, and Annie doesn't seem like she could kill a single beowolf without losing her nerve'_. I pointed my finger at Annie "And you… You've only shown yourself as a liability. You didn't help me when trying to protect that faunus family-". Her faced flashed that of anger as she tried to defend herself.

"But that's because-!" I stopped her by jabbing her in the forehead.

"Does it look like I give a single shit about what excuses you have? You've shown me three things, you've shown me that you either you didn't think you had the necessary skill to beat them or you didn't act because you were scared.". I held up two fingers like I was counting. She looked absolutely _pissed,_ so I knew I was getting my point across. "But that's only two… and I said three-" I flipped up my third finger to show there was still more. "-and the third one is definitely the worst.". I was basically growling at this point as I leaned in close and spoke with a menacing voice. "You didn't want to help them because of _who they were."._ I heavily emphasized the last few words so she would definitely understand what I was saying. "And none of those skills are what I want in a teammate.

Her anger flared up into that of pure rage, hitting a level that I don't think even she knew she could reach. I thought her throat was going to shred itself apart from her voice. "I was going to help them if you weren't there!".

I responded with a raised voice of my own. "There are no what ifs in the real world, ' _child' ,_ only what has been, what is , and what will be. Hindsight might be 20/20 but that doesn't matter if you're dead!". ' _She needs to get it through that inaction is what gets you killed, only through action can you save lives… even if sometimes it's the wrong action…'_. She looked as though she was about to blow her top, and it looked literal to me.

I took a few steps back. "Draw your weapon." I ordered her. It took a moment for her to process exactly what I said. ' _Now she looks pissed and confused as all hell'. "_ You heard me… Draw. Your. Weapon" I stated and commanded more firmly than before. She started to reach behind her back albeit rather slowly. "If you beat me, you will prove you care for faunus, because right now, all I see is a delusional little girl who puts too much faith in her heroes to save the day for her.".

Saying that, I managed to get the confusion out of her mind and replace it with conviction. ' _Though_... _that conviction may be a detriment to my health in some way.'_. She reached behind her and grabbed the long hilt from behind her back, holding it with one hand. I watched carefully as it quickly expanded into a long curve. ' _Looks like some sort of bow, especially with the way she holds it, yet I can't see a string or a quiver, I need to be careful'_. I held myself from drawing my weapon, to see what she was capable of first, because I made it a policy to only draw that weapon when needed, unless It was a grimm.

I was about to charge Annie when I felt something heavy slam into my side, knocking me a ways away. I did a roll and ended up on my feet ' _Who or what was that?'_. I looked up to see Emilia with a medium sized kite shield and a sword with an overly thick handle, which I concluded was some kind of gun. Then Emilia stood up to me. "I command you to cease this action at once, _sir!_ This action is not permitted on school grounds, nor is it an acceptable action to perform on a lady!". I snickered at her before giving her my retort.

"This isn't just a school, this is the place where we become defenders of the realm from a darkness that threatens to wipe us from existence! This isn't just some fucking _game_ we play instead of going to some regular high school!". I took a moment to take a breath and observe the two, they both had their weapons at the ready, but they were soaking up my words. ' _I have to get this message across, that these two need to grow up and open their eyes to why we're here, not because we're becoming adults, but because we're becoming hunters!'._ That last thought sounded like something I should have said out loud.

I saw they had nothing to say so I took that as my queue to continue. "We aren't just coming here to go from teens to adults, we are coming here to go from a bunch of super powered teens with dreams of creating a better tomorrow to hunters making those dreams a reality and stopping humanity from ceasing to exist! That is why I must fight Annie alone, so that she can prove herself to me as someone who doesn't just have a dream of saving humans, faunus, and the lives of all the people down there-". I pointed my finger at the cliff edge. After another moment to catch my breath and switch my finger's focus from the cliff to Annie, I continued. "-but also as someone with the passion and capability to do so! Now! Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to prove yourself to me so that we can change the world together and as a team?!". ' _Wow…_ _ **I**_ _didn't even think I was capable of such an awesome speech'_. I dropped my finger to the side and felt a powerful smile overcome my facial features.

Emilia stepped back, with a newfound respect for me. She sheathed her sword and reattached her shield back onto her back. Annie, however, seemed absolutely bewildered by my speech, stunned even. After a few short moments, she regained her composure. She smiled brightly and got into a battle position, invigorated with a newfound energy to battle me and prove her ability to change the world for better. Before she did anything, however she frowned while looking at me. "I-I really don't want to fight you while you're unarmed…". ' _I really need to give her a talk on taking every advantage you could get, but if she really feels that confident, i'll be happy to oblige.'_. I made eye contact with her and gave a silent nod, indicating that I understood.

I looked at the golden bracelet on my arm ' _Looks like it's time again old buddy'._ I put my hands together as if holding an invisible sword. Annie and Emilia were watching intently to see what kind of weapon I had. I focused my mind and a sheathed sword began to appear in my hands. After I finished, Annie and Emilia looked absolutely stunned by my performance. "Ladies… Meet Masamune, my sword.". Masamune is shaped like an average knight's longsword. It has a black sheath and a handle just long enough for two hands. The blade is your normal steel like color, but I'm told the swordsmith who made it a millennia ago had some kind of other ancient material mixed it to make it nigh indestructible. The only thing on the blade is an inscription in the swordsmith's ancient language that I'm told means " _In order to protect, you must first have the power to do so."_. Don't know how accurate that is from being passed down over a millennia, but I like it. And, finally, at the bottom of the handle there is a topaz embedded it, which I'm told is supposed to calm one's temper, give strength, and improve mental clarity. I made sure the sheath was attached tightly to the sword so that it wouldn't come off.

I got myself into a ready stance **,** indicating that I was, indeed, ready. Finally out of her amazed stupor, Annie did the same with her bow, now with a confident smile on her face. Noticing the sheath still on she tried to taunt me. "Afraid to hurt me?" She said with a grin. I almost immediately replied "Yes.". Her face dropped a bit and I could sense a trace of fear from her, though, it was very small.

Emilia had taken a few steps back to get away from the chaos that our battle would ensue. ' _In fact, looking at Annie now, I see she is no novice with her weapon, I think Emilia saw it as well._ _She's no pushover in battle it seems.'._ The air was tense as we stared each other down. I realized something important and held my hand up to signal her to stand down. She complied. "We have no idea what each other's semblances are, right?". Annie nodded, as did Emilia, though the knight wasn't participating. "So how about we limit ourselves to just weapons. That way we don't hurt each other or anyone else accidentally.". She nodded and responded.

"Okay, no semblances, got it".

We got back into our ready positions. There was only a moment before I rushed her, commencing the battle that would decide her fate at Beacon. ' _Will she prove to be capable and join my team, or will she fall short and be doomed to be with a team without the passion and power that dwells with me. One can only hope the former, because I actually like this girl, and that doesn't happen often.'._

There's only one fate for the weak in this world… Death, when the heroes they put so much trust into, fail to save them...

 **There you go. that's chapter 2. I tried to put as much effort as possible into this story, so much so, that I won't be abandoning it anytime soon. If you have and ideas for some cool Grimm, go ahead and pm me. If i like the idea I might implement them, or it, into the story. Also, I will reiterate, if you see any spelling errors then please, tell me so that I can fix it.**

 **I have my sister drawing a thumbnail for me, so don't fret.**

 **Trivia#2 Hiro was originally going to be called Lance or Arkraith, Until I decided to name him after the title "The hero and the hare". The title came first, then the character.**

 **Have a wonderful day, my lovely readers.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Welcome to chapter three of "The hero and the Hare". I'm glad you've made it this far. I just lost inspiration mid-chapter, mostly because I couldn't find a good transition into the next part of the story, though I did find a way. So... Enjoy chapter 3 of the story! Also, If you find any errors please make sure to tell me so that I can fix them.**

I didn't see any arrows on Annie, but she didn't get here by using a bow with no ammo. After I got close enough, I saw the danger of the weapon. Above and below the handles there were dust canisters. ' _Cylindrical revolvers by the looks of it.'_ I saw the string loosely fall out of the inner curve of the bow before it tightened itself. I brought my charge to a halt to wait for any moves Annie might make, so that when she did make a move I would have time to react. ' _Seeing as I've never seen a weapon like hers before, it's best to be careful.'_ She saw my halt and decided to make the first move. I watched as her dust mechanism spun, loading up another dust type, though I couldn't see exactly what type.

She pulled back on her bow string and as it was pulled back a red arrow began to form. Even after the arrow finished forming she continued to pull, all in a matter of a fraction of a second.

She let the arrow loose and I quickly dove under it and began charging Annie again, with a small explosion going off behind me. She jumped up high before pulling the bow back, revealing an icy blue arrow forming. She fired of the shot and I easily moved out of the way. When it hit I heard ice form, and tried to go after Annie again, only to find my feet stuck to the ground. I quickly made the connection and brought my sheathed sword down on the ground, shattering the ice holding my feet hostage. I looked up just in time to dodge a fire arrow that I could hear cutting the air as it passed. I thought I was in the clear, but the arrow hit the ice, destroying it, and coating the area in a light mist. ' _This girl has got moves, but i'm just getting started.'_

I spun my blade quickly in a three-sixty degree manner, blowing all the mist away,revealing nothing immediately in front of me. I quickly turned to find Annie charging at me with a sideways slash from her bow. I brought my blade up to block, and when i did, I felt electricity racing through my body, causing intense pain. I quickly left back to figure out what that was. And when I looked at Annie, she was no longer holding her bow, but a double bladed sword. The bow looked to have straightened out and it had blades protruding from the tips down to the long handle and over it, like a hand guard. Electricity was crackling throughout the blade. ' _Well… time to go on the offensive. I can't keep playing defensive, not my style.'_

I rushed her with a speed much faster than my original charge, catching her off guard. She barely managed to deflect my sideways slash. ' _Didn't feel the electricity as bad, probably because it wasn't a direct blow to the weapon.'_ Her weapons electrical crackling dissipated, and was replaced with flames that coated her blade. A quickly rushed her again, this time with a diagonal slash that she tried to parry, but with my superior force, only got her blade knocked to the side, but still in her grasp. Seeing an opening, I swung at her exposed side, getting a direct hit on her. She did a backflip to get out of harm's way, ending up in the grassy area of the courtyard, and I raced after her.

I hadn't managed to get very far before she turned around and slashed with an overhead strike… nowhere near me. ' _This mistake will not go unpunished.'_ However, instead of it being a complete fail, she managed to hit the ground with her now icy blue blade. Seeing what was happening, I quickly jumped back as the area in front of her was coated in a thin layer of ice. I landed a ways away from her, onto the other side of the stone path, and was not prepared to see the next draw of her bow generate two arrows, one, red, the other, blue.

She fired her bow and I watched as the two arrows curved outwards before quickly curving back inwards, intersecting at a point on front of me. Once again the area was coated in mist. With greater speed than last time, I got rid of the mist, only to come face to face with a much more intimidating view than last time.

A wave of no less than ten arrows, of a variety of colors, was heading my way. Thinking fast, I quickly leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding being turned into an icicle. After landing I quickly made a juke to the left avoid a yellow arrow crackling with electricity, only to move my left leg right into the path of another ice arrow, freezing my whole bottom left leg. Seeing another six or eight arrows coming at me, I decided that this girl was a lot more of a threat than I gave her credit for. ' _Looks like it's time to take this serious… sort of.'_ I ducked slightly to avoid another yellow arrow that was headed for my head and swiped my sword down onto the ice to free myself, though only heavily damaging it, I was forced to pull my leg out to avoid being hit by yet another ice arrow. With my release of my leg from its icy prison, I was left off balance and unable to avoid the red arrow coming at me, so I had no choice but to try and deflect it with my sword.

I tapped the arrow as lightly as possible to misdirect it away from me. My plan worked and the arrow went flying into a stone pillar about 20 yards behind me, damaging it, as well as taking out a good chunk.I also noticed that I was near the courtyard that had the stone pillars. ' _Wow... we've gotten far from our space, when did that happen_?' Taking my focus away from the pillar I had only a moment's notice to deflect the black arrow speeding towards me, only to realize my mistake after it hit. As the arrow hit my sheathed sword, it was quickly absorbed into the sheath, tripling it's weight. ' _Fucking annoyance, that gravity dust.'_ I was still able to wield the weapon well enough, but was forced to use a lot more energy and power to do so.

The last three arrows were two fires and a yellow. However, a white arrow quickly came in and exploded next to the other three,giving them a wave of energy that tripled their speed. Using a great amount of strength I was able to slash at the first fire arrow, causing it to burst open and explode, knocking me directly back. I was forced up in a hurry in order to duck to the side to avoid the yellow arrow's powerful shock, once again moving into the path of the fire arrow. With the precision and mastery only a true swordsman could obtain, I was able to swing at the fire arrow with the speed and precision to only misdirect it away from me, once again causing it to sail into a stone pillar, the same stone pillar as last time, this time however, the support pillar was knocked down, taking out the arch it was supporting, as well as creating a domino effect. I watched as the entire row of arches and pillars collapsed. ' _Well, I hope my insurance covers that.'_

Annie had wasted no time watching, apparent when I turned around to see her charging me with her double bladed sword in hand, she was going insanely fast. Her blade was glowing white. ' _Probably using the same white dust as she used on the arrows.'_ Due to her newfound speed I was unable to dodge or even deflect the swing of her blade and was sent flying backwards into a pool near the rubble of the collapsed arches and columns. I quickly got up and leapt back onto the cement pathway. ' _It's really time now, she's good, I haven't had to do this for anyone in a while.'_ I spun my sword so that the handle was on the top and got to work on removing the sheath.

Annie was standing about ten yards away watching as I slowly undid the powerful contraptions keeping the sheath on the blade. A mix of magic and mechanisms, and I mean, there is a quick release, but this is so much more intimidating. I got the sheath's contraptions undone and slowly pulled out the blade, revealing it's ancient writing and shiny gleam. Annie was panting heavily and I could see the sweat on her head. It looked like she was waiting till I was done before making her moves. ' _Seriously, I know it's not honorable, but this is the perfect time to attack.'_

I dropped the sheath onto the ground and it made a loud clunk from the metal on cement as well as creating small cracks all around it. Annie didn't pay much mind to it doing that until she realized something. "Hey,... uh… Shouldn't the _*Pant*_ gravity dust have run out _*Pant*_ by now?" I gave a small smirk with my reply. "Oh, it did, a bit ago, in fact." Her eye widened at this. "But... , I mean… Just what is * _Pant_ * that sheath's weight?". I continued my small smirk, as I gave the sword a few practice swings. "Fifty kilograms." I responded, like it was the most casual thing ever. "Her eye looked like it was going to pop. "Fifty! But that means with the gravity dust-". She did some cliché finger counting before her eye somehow widened even further and left her mouth agape. "-You were deflecting arrows with something that weighed A hundred fifty kilograms!". ' _I love people's faces when I say that, it's the best feeling ever to see them understand just how strong I am.'_

I could see Emilia had been walking from where we started and was almost to us. ' _Probably wondering why we had stopped fighting._ ' It was only a few seconds until Emilia arrived. "Hello companions, what has come upon your duel to cause a standstill as such." ' _Nailed it.'_ I decided to be the one to respond to Emilia. "We we're just finishing up, right Annie?" Hoping she got the hint I quickly dashed at her with speeds that seemed unattainable to any normal human. But we aren't normal humans, are we?

The surprised and exhausted look on Annie's face heavily indicated she was in no way ready for my barrage of attacks that I followed up with after my dash. Tired and out of stamina, she only managed to deflect every other attack, if only barely. ' _I shouldn't mention how i'm not even at full power, though, she did manage to get me to unsheath my sword, so that's impressive. She definitely has potential, but she has a lot to work on if she wants to become stronger, like me.'_ Annie was taking hit after hit at this point, and I was surprised she even managed to stay up this long. Emilia had once again withdrawn away from the fight, though it probably wasn't necessary to do so.

With her aura was dropping fast, Annie was getting desperate as well as clumsy and tried to strike me with a sloppy thrust to my right with her double bladed sword. I easily knocked the blade out of her hand and she watched as it was flew over next to the first unbroken stone pillar on the other side of the court. Now disarmed, weakened, and exhausted, Annie could do nothing to defend herself from the powerful attack to her side, though I did use the blunt of the blade. She was sent flying into the same stone pillar that her weapon landed next to, and I saw as her aura finally depleted fully. I looked at Emilia to see her making her way back over to me.

It was faint, but I heard a rumble coming from Annie's direction. I looked over to see the pillar shaking violently, on the verge of collapsing. ' _Oh shit, without her aura she won't survive that'_ I looked at Emilia and saw that she looked a little panicked, and was frozen in place with what I assumed was fear. Fear of what? "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be saving her or something _Knight?"._ She just stood there frozen in place, looking at me then back at the weakened and immobile Annie, who was now leaning on the pillar. Annie at this point had realized what what happening to the pillar she was leaning on and tried to get away, only to have her legs buckle under her, causing her to collapse to the ground. Now laying on the ground she looked up at me and Emilia. She looked back and forth frantically, expecting one of us to have already helped her.

I looked at Emilia who still was frozen up. I sighed outwardly. ' _If Annie was actually in danger, I would definitely be much more upset. I need to bring this up with her, later though._ ' I ran over to Annie and picked her up so that I was holding her bridal style, with her head on my left and her feet on my right. I could feel Annie breathing heavily as I jogged back onto the path, turning back at the pillars just in time to see them all fall with the same domino effect that the other side had experienced. I looked around and noticed that the courtyard was a huge mess.

Annie was actually quite light, which was surprising, considering how many hits she took with her aura and how hard she hit back. ' _Well I guess aura doesn't really correspond with physical bodies.'_ I looked down into her eye and she looked back into mine. She smiled weakly as she spoke up. "So… did I pass?" she said quite slowly. ' _This girl amazes me, not in a good or bad way, just plain... amazement.'_ I gave her a warm smile back in return.

"Yeah, you sure did." Her smile grew, if only slightly. She leaned her head back over my arm and sighed a sigh of relief. "I don't get you-" I started. "We've known each other for a half a day and yet you act like it's more important than getting into beacon itself, what's up with that?" It was actually pretty weird now that I thought about it. "I mean, maybe if we were childhood friends, which we aren't, I could understand, but you met me when you saw me beating up a bunch of thugs. Would you mind explaining this fascination over me?" She gave a soft chuckle as a blush made it's way on her face.

"It's actually an interesting story…" She replied with little energy.

"One for another time. It's getting late, we should head to… wherever it is we're sleeping.". Annie seemed to shift into a comfortable position awkwardly in my arms. Seeing this, I tried putting Annie down. "You're definitely comfortable, Annie, but it's time you get down.". I tried putting her feet on the ground, but once again her feet collapsed under her and I managed to catch her before she fell.

"Here, let me help you, sir. I will carry her for you." Emilia, who had been watching us, said. I raised an eyebrow at her. She looked at me before asking "What seems to be the matter?" I raised my eyebrow higher

"Emilia…" I openly sighed. "Have you ever layed down on a metal bed?". She looked at me with a angry glare.

"I don't see what that has to do with the current situation, but no, there's no positives about sleeping on a metal bed." I smiled. Before Emilia had a chance to speak up I gestured to her entire body. She looked down with a confused look on her face. It took her a good few seconds to understand just what I meant. ' _Steel armor doesn't make something comfortable in any way,shape, or form.'_ Her face turned from confusion to a scowl. "Well I-I…" I smirked at her.

"Sorry Emilia, you you've got no argument against me." I looked at Annie who was still leaning against me and she looked back, causing our faces to almost touch. She blushed madly whilst turning her head to the side whereas I just chuckled at the situation. "So Annie…" She turned her head towards me, but not directly in my face. "Do I carry you, or will you walk on your own?" She looked over at Emilia and she scanned her top to bottom. ' _Yeah… go ahead, get her to carry you, I dare you._ ' She looked back at me for a moment before looking down the path we were on, towards the giant hall.

Annie tried to slightly push off of me to move on her own, but she barely took a step before almost collapsing again. I managed to catch her again. "Did I break your legs or something?". Annie shook her head.

"N-no...I just… haven't had a fight like that in well… ever… And it was really exhausting, having to fight like that.". I nodded in understanding.

"Makes sense. You probably just need some rest." I lifted Annie up so that her left arm was around the front of my neck and hanging behind me and her head and right arm were over my left side. My right arm went around her back and my left arm was under her thighs, which was probably the least provocative way to hold her at the time. "Let's try and find a teacher of some sort to help us figure out where we're supposed to go." I looked back at Emilia who was frozen looking behind me. "What's wrong?" I looked over at the hall and was struck with the same fear that had come over Emilia.

A woman that looked to be a teacher was heading towards us, and she had a very stern and angry glare. We were all too frozen in fear to run from the angry looking woman. "Just what on remnant do you think you kids are doing." She stood in front of me and judging by how she went back and forth from the girl in my arms and me, she was probably getting some idea. ' _Though that idea is probably right.'_

"I think the question is more of a what DID we do, rather than what are we doing." I retorted back. She raised an angry eyebrow and glared at me.

"So what DID you do?"

"Annie, the girl i'm holding, and I, had a fight in which she proved herself to be a worthy teammate.". There was a deafening silence as the next few seconds ran by. ' _I don't think that's a goo-… is that a tumbleweed?'_ I watched as the supposed tumbleweed rolled by. The silence was broken by the teacher sighing.

"Kids… first off… this kind of behavior is not acceptable on campus." She gestured around us to the battlefield. The courtyard was all but destroyed and over by where the fight had originated you could see ice coating parts of the ground, small fires burning in some of the trees, and just overall damage to lampposts and the ground. ' _Looks badass… but where the fuck did half of this damage come from.'_ "And second… you don't choose your teammates. There is a specific 'process' in which these things occur."

Once again the area was bathed in a silence for what felt like a long time. Seconds, minutes, hour-. ' _Aw fuck, that's way too over dramatic for me.'_ Eventually Annie started with what I thought were convulsions but quickly realized she was actually giggling like a… well… like a schoolgirl. ' _Well shit, then we had no reason to fight.'_ Eventually Emilia started giggling lightly too, whereas I smiled at the embarrassing moment and I almost rubbed the back of my head, before remembering I was still holding Annie.

I looked at the teacher, who happened to still be looking at us with a stern look, though I could tell she wanted to smile as well.

"Well, I introduced myself on the airship, so what is your name, young man." I took this as my queue to speak up. ' _I mean… I am the only guy here… so "man" only applies to me…'_

"Aeolus, Hiro Aeolus" I replied casually. My smile had faded at that point. "So...What is your name, Miss?" And yet another silence. ' _Uuuuh?'_

"Hey , Hiro?" I heard Annie whisper from behind me.

"Yeah, Annie?"

"Were you asleep during her introduction to beacon?"

"...Yeah."

Annie started giggling until the teacher spoke up again, in which she promptly quieted herself. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch, but you will refer to me as _professor_ Goodwitch, is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Emilia, Annie, and I said at the same time. Emilia gave a small bow in respect, whereas I was unable to do anything with Annie in my arms. Annie seemed to be getting less and less responsive. "Annie, are you okay?" I only got a slight shift in movement in response. "Annie, are you okay?" I jostled her a bit in my arms this time. Emilia and both looked at us with worry in their eyes.

"We should bring Ms… Annie to the infirmary to get a checkup after your _roughhousing._ I will lead you there, follow me."

We nodded in understanding. "Good, now let me clean up this mess then i'm going to bring you all to where the other student are currently being situated for the night, so that you may begin initiation tomorrow.

I was about to question what she meant by " _clean up"_ until she pulled out a riding crop and waved it around like some kind of wizard. I heard a rumble and looked around us to see everything we destroyed just go back into its place. The pillars all rewound themselves and all the damage that was caused to the surroundings was all undone. Emilia and I were watching for only half a minute until everything was completely back to where it was, all while Annie was completely silent.

"Holy shit, that was cool." I commented. put her riding crop back where it came from and glared at me.

"Watch your language young ma. You are at a prestigious academy and I will not be having my students use such vulgar language while on the campus." She was looking me in the eye as she talked. "Now, children, let's head to the infirmary to give a checkup."

"Yes, ma'am." Emilia and I both responded.

"I think her last name is Brayleigh." I told .

"Noted." Goodwitch responded and began walking. "Follow me children."

Before we began walking to the infirmary, I tried once more to get a response from Annie. I shook her a bit and said "Are you okay, Annie?" I heard her mumble something and looked at Emilia and to see them waiting patiently. However after a moment all our worries were quickly taken away, when we heard a soft snore come from Annie. I looked at Emilia and with a small smile on my face, and they gave me smiles of relief in return. "It looks like the infirmary won't be needed." Both Emilia, as well as nodded with a small smile.

"Then I suppose I shall be taking you to where the rest of the new students are being situated, so that you too can prepare yourselves for tomorrow's initiation." ' _Is initiation really that hard? I mean… if a professor really thinks so, then I'll take her word for it._ '

I whispered to Annie, "Did you really push yourself that far just to prove yourself to me?" I felt her grip tighten around me even though she was asleep. "Heh, you have to explain yourself to me sometime." We began walking to the hall when I signalled I was ready to go. ' _Why do I feel so attached to this girl? I hardly even know her, yet I feel like we're childhood friends or something. I haven't felt this close to someone since… since, well… ever._ ' I tried looking at Annie but only managed to look at her back. ' _Do I really want to get so close to Annie… even after what happened last time I got close to someone?...'_ I looked down at her back again. "Heh, you must be pretty special for my instincts to say such things" I whispered to no one but myself. I took my hand from behind her back and began to rub her head through the hood.

I leaned back while making sure that Annie didn't fall and watched as her face lit up with a smile as I pet her. I accidentally pulled her hood back during a particularly rough pet and was quite surprised. Luckily I was behind Emilia and , so they didn't see the white rabbit ears that sprang up from her head. ' _Well, in all honesty i'm surprised but I mean it makes sense that she's a faunus_ ' Making sure that neither Emilia nor Goodwitch was watching, I tucked the white ears back behind her head again and pulled the hood back over making sure that they were fully concealed. "Our little secret." I whispered to her as quietly as I could and pulled her back into my grip with my right arm around her back again.

' _Alright, I've made up my mind. I choose to get close to this girl. Even with what happened last time, and I will protect her until she becomes strong, strong enough to protect the people she too, cares about.'_ With my mind made up to protect Annie and make her stronger I walked with a new conviction.

In order to change the world and rid it of it's corruption, anger, and hate, we will become great, we will be greater than any other team before us. We will be written in history as the greatest team that ever lived, not because we were the strongest, the fastest, or the most tactical… but because we were the team that changed the world.

 **I hope you enjoyed chapter three of my story. I may take a bit longer than Thursday to get the next chapter out, sorry. Anyways if you find any errors tell me. I'm always looking to become a better author and any criticism helps.**

 **Trivia#3 Every OC has gone through name changes and almost all of the names have meanings behind them. All last names have a meaning and when I reveal weapon names, those are related as well. First names are almost all personal preference though.**

 **Anyways. Have a wonderful day, my lovely readers!**


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